Israel completes new stretch of apartheid wall in WB

Israel says it has completed the construction of part of its controversial separation wall near the occupied Palestinian city of al-Khalil ('Hebron') in the southern West Bank.

In a statement released on Wednesday, the Israeli Ministry of Military Affairs announced that it had “installed the final concrete walls, completing a 42-kilometer wall between [the Palestinian village of] Tarkumia and Meitar [crossing].”

Israeli Minister of Military Affairs Avigdor Liberman claimed that "the completion of the wall in the southern Hebron hills is another step in … efforts to significantly increase the security of residents of the area.”

Israel began building the 712-kilometer barrier of towering concrete walls, barbed-wire fences, trenches and closed military roads inside the occupied West Bank back in 2002.

Tel Aviv argues that the project is aimed at preventing infiltration into the occupied territories, but Palestinians say the move is yet another violation of their rights and allows for further annexation of their land.

If completed, the barrier will result in the isolation of 9.4 percent of the West Bank, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

According to the UN figures published before Wednesday’s announcement, some 214 kilometers of the wall remains to be erected.